childes-db: A flexible and reproducible interface to the child language data exchange system

Abstract

The Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) has played a critical role in research on child language development, particularly in characterizing the early language learning environment. Access to these data can be both complex for novices and difficult to automate for advanced users, however. To address these issues, we introduce childes-db, a database-formatted mirror of CHILDES that improves data accessibility and usability by offering novel interfaces, including browsable web applications and an R application programming interface (API). Along with versioned infrastructure that facilitates reproducibility of past analyses, these interfaces lower barriers to analyzing naturalistic parent–child language, allowing for a wider range of researchers in language and cognitive development to easily leverage CHILDES in their work.

Notes

Author Notes

Thanks to Brian MacWhinney for advice and guidance, and to Melissa Kline for her work on ClanToR, which formed a starting point for our work. This work is supported by a Jacobs Advanced Research Fellowship to MCF.

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